1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device, input method, and electronic equipment that detect psychological information of a user, and more particularly to, an input device and input method that detect a user's psychological state through normal operation performed by the user and an electronic equipment that detect a user's psychological state through operation performed by the user.
This application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-412275, filed on Dec. 10, 2003, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic game device, which includes a liquid crystal display device or is connectable to a TV set, is configured to receive input of an instruction or data from a user through a controller provided with input keys to execute a program based on the input information. In a conventional electronic game device, however, a prepared program proceeds only by input operation from the user, which limits the fun of the game.
To cope with this, a configuration in which a detection means for detecting the excitement level of the player is provided in the controller to change the pattern of the game depending on the excitement level of the player is proposed. In particular, a technique that grasps the excitement level of the player by detecting sweating, heartbeat, blood pressure, body temperature, brain wave, key-tapping intensity, pronunciation, blinking, or the like to make the player more excited in the game plot is proposed (refer to, for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. Laid-Open Publication No. 5-293253).
However, the calculation of psychological state from sweating, heartbeat, blood pressure, body temperature, brain wave, key-tapping intensity, pronunciation, blinking, or the like is normally executed based on the detection of highly accurate indicator and complicated analytical algorithm, incurring an increased processing load, which complicates the configuration of the controller (input section) for the detection.